crossposted from
unbossed
Consider the case of Richard Stickler, nominated but not approved by the Senate for appointment to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).
After Richard Stickler's nomination as Director of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) was
forcefully blockedby Senators Jay Rockefeller and Robert Byrd, the Administration pulled a Hamdan.
What's a Hamdan?
It's when someone in power says no - say, for example, the US Supreme Court, and you say in public that you will comply but all the while the plans are in motion to do it anyway.
So what else is new?
This is an Administration whose mode of operation is to do pull off whatever outrage it had planned - despite being told no by those who are supposed to have the authority to say no. They just find another route to the same end. And one of them is getting Stickler in as head of MSHA in fact if not in name.
But why would anyone object to Stickler, you ask, since the MSHA and dead miners has been off the national radar screen for a few months now.
Here is the Rockefeller-Byrd statement against Stickler's nomination:
The Senate had planned to vote on the nominee today, but Republican leadership cancelled the vote after realizing the widespread opposition that Rockefeller and Byrd mustered against him. If the White House attempts to make Stickler a recess appointment, Democrats secured a promise as a result of today's action that the Senate would be given an opportunity to vote on the nomination. Rockefeller is going farther, urging the President to immediately pull the Stickler nomination.
In various mine-related jobs, Stickler has a track record of undermining the safety needs of coal miners. The mines that Stickler ran were some of the most dangerous in the industry and were cited for safety violations at a rate far higher than the industry average. At his confirmation hearing, Stickler suggested that, even in the wake of accidents at Sago and Aracoma, Congress did not need to pass new mine safety legislation.
So what did the Administration do after it withdrew the Stickler nomination? tick-tick-tick. All those who said it hired him as a consultant - probably to do what he was nominated for but which the Senate did not confirm him for - go to the head of the class.
The Department of Labor has hired Richard Stickler, President Bush's contested nominee for assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, as a consultant, and West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd and the United Mine Workers of America want an explanation.
"The Department of Labor has tapped the expertise of Mr. Richard Stickler, a former miner from West Virginia who has vast experience in mine safety, to assist with a variety of important issues related to mine safety," Mine Safety and Health Administration spokesman Dirk Fillpot told Platts late Wednesday.
"Mr. Stickler will provide insight and recommendations that will be valuable to the department's efforts to improve mine safety, including the implementation of the Miner Act, recruiting and training of inspectors, and adjusting of penalties. Mr. Stickler has a temporary appointment in the senior executive service with commensurate salary and benefits."
A DOL spokesman referred questions directed to that agency back to Fillpot.
link
Of course, the question is what Stickler is consulting about? With this Badministration's record, he is no doubt doing the job that Congress refused to confirm him in. After all, it is only in our Constitution that the first part of getting this sort of position is nomination, but step 2 is confirmation by the Senate, which is supposed to be a co-equal partner.
See Spewing Forth for more comments on the appointment.
A Pattern
If there is one thing we know about the Bush Administration it is that failure is not an option. These guys decide to do something bad or even evil, get told no, say OK, then rename it or disguise it in some other way, and just go ahead.
A couple weeks ago I was thinking of making a list of the Badministration's failures. But this week, I've decided that what we normal folks see as failures they see as irrelevant. They are working on another plane, dimension, game plan all together, and mostly they have succeeded.
It is as if they are aliens who have arrived on our planet with the goal of de-terraforming it so that it will be habitable for their species. They need fouled air to breathe, an uneducated mass to enslave, nations locked in endless conflict as a distraction from the real menace, etc.
In fact, this scenario explains what is going on better than anything else.